Air compressors are known in the art for supplying a flow of pressurized air for a variety of applications. They often use a motor that repetitively drives a piston to compress the air. As the air is compressed, it is often provided to and stored in a tank from which it can then be dispensed. The tank is typically brought up to a particular pressure by the compressor, at which point, a pressure sensor provides a signal that shuts off the motor. When the pressure in the tank drops to a particular pressure, as sensed by the pressure switch, or the compressor is manually turned on again, the motor will turn back on to continue the flow of pressurized air to the tank.
Typical consumer air compressors provide air pressures of about 200 psi or lower. Some applications, however, may require pressures greatly exceeding 200 psi. For example, paintball guns often have tanks that are filled to very high pressures such as 3000 psi-4500 psi. Similarly, scuba tanks are also filled to very high pressures. Thus, most consumer air compressors are not suitable for high pressure applications.
Furthermore, piston assemblies used for common air compressors utilize an interference fit of metallic sealing ring that is attached to and moves with the piston. Due to the number of cycles that the piston is required to undergo during operation, piston failure, and thus compressor failure, is often attributed to wear experienced by the piston components.